An advanced hot filament chemical vapor deposition method was developed to make it possible to control the substrate temperature regardless of other CVD parameters (e. g. filament temperature and filament-to-substrate distance). Independent and accurate control of the substrate temperature was achieved by resistive heating of the substrate with electric current through the substrate itself and also by noncontact optical monitoring of the substrate temperature. By employing this method, the growth rates of diamond films were measured as functions of the substrate temperature and the filament-to-substrate distance.